01/03/2008 | W5QLF Many thanks to Jim, K5BZH for his effort to get Texas hams out for SKN. It worked for me even though I made only three contacts on SKN.

I enjoyed the lengthy ragchew contacts with Paul, WD4EBR in Tennessee and Pat, K4BEH in Georgia. Not great DX but great contacts as we found that we had much in common.

There were plenty of signals heard on 40 and 80 meters from my QTH near San Antonio so it was hard to find a sliver of frequency space to edge into. There was plenty of QSB to go around but all the operators I heard were courteous and well mannered.

K6KPH and K2A were heard several times but the line waiting for QSOs was long for both of these unique stations.

I had great fun copying the vintage signals from vacuum tube powered rigs such as WD4EBR's Viking Ranger. I had two transceivers going: My Yaesu FT-901DM (with vacuum tubes in the driver and finals) was tuned to 80 meters and a newer Icom IC-746 tuned to 40 meters.

Two straight keys were pressed into service this night: A nickel and chrome Speed-X key enjoying new life with a new spring and aluminum base plate from Nye Viking. The other key is a solid brass key marked as Signal Electric Mfg. Co. Menominnee, Michigan. This key is mounted on a home made 1/16" polished brass baseplate. The extra weight of brass seems to give this key a solid feel when keyed.

Thanks to the ARRL for encouraging us to operate our vintage equipment with manual keys. The whole operation brings back good memories of my novice shack in the summer of 1960 as WV6NBG.

73 till Jan 1, 2009,

Joe W5QLF
Helotes, TX -- W5QLF